In our first podcast for the History Today Book Club,  Editor Paul Lay talks to Helen Castor, author of our recommended book for July, She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth (Faber). Helen discusses her motivations for writing She-Wolves, especially her interest in the way power was wielded at a time when the state was so primitive.

In this podcast she explores one of history’s most important themes – contingency – how the happenstance of Edward VI’s early death in 1553 meant that there were now only women left on the Tudor family tree. Suddenly the subject of female rule had to be broached for want of any alternative.

But how important is contingency? Is the concept easier to grasp if we embrace counterfactual or ‘what if?’ history in order to explore the paths history did not take and understand better the course it did?

What are your views on this eternally fascinating subject and on Helen Castor’s remarkable study?

You can also download this podcast from iTunes.